Quiet Times
by S.Hagen
Summary: The assassination of a powerful corporate leader has brought the Lovely Angels to the planet of Alantis. With everything resolved without complication, the girls have decided to rest a little on a planet that has no reason to regret the pressence of the L


**QUIET TIMES**  
by Shawn Hagen(1993;2005) 

Yuri spread her wings, catching conceptual winds to glide across the plain of virtual reality. Her long black hair streamed behind her, longer than it was in the real world. Blue eyes sparkled with the excitement of what was happening; flight without mechanical means.

Was it any wonder, Yuri thought, that some people couldn't go back to the real world? That they had their brain tape loaded into a computer and never left the virtual reality of the data plane?

Once she had almost succumbed to the siren's call of this world.

Fortunately there were things that virtual reality could not offer as well as the real world. Also, there was always something in the virtual world that, eventually, rang false to Yuri.

She scanned the area she was travelling through. Huge constructs hung in the finite space of the closed system, each one a part of it.

A thin mist drifted over Yuri's pale skin, revealing then hiding then revealing again, her only concession to modesty.

She looked much as she did in the real world, other than the angelic wings that grew from her back and her hair, which went down to the back of her knees. She had a very strong sense of her being, unlike some who changed their appearance every time they jacked into a system.

Her lovely wings beat as she sped towards a huge, black spheroid. A smile appeared on her face as she increased her speed.

Somewhere off in the real world she smiled as her hands flew over the keyboard of her deck, controlling only the most banal aspects of the infiltration.

In virtual reality Yuri saw coils of dirty brown light explode out of the black sphere. A silverish patch appeared on her skin between her breasts and then spread out until it covered her entire body, including her wings. It was like skin, each hair on her head still defined, each feather of her wings. It was her armour in this world, part of her, not hampering as it protected.

From her wings glowing motes were released into the space around her. Each of the brown coils of light homed in on one of the motes. The motes vanished before the warning programs touched them. One of the warning programs hit Yuri, but it washed over her like she was not there.

Yuri folded her wings around herself decreasing her surface area and adding more protection. She plunged straight in, cutting through the mirrored surface of the black ice.

It tried to stop her. She fought off viruses, she stopped it from sending out an alarm, she destroyed the tracker program it sent out fry her deck. She was living at the speed of thought; the rush was nearly sexual in its intensity. All too easy to get addicted.

Then she was through. The black ice had not stopped her, however hard it had tried. She found herself flying over an evergreen forest that stretched out to the horizon every way she looked. Very nice, she thought, a programmer who was a naturalist. It was boring compared to what she had seen before. The Marquis de Sade's torture chamber, now that had been as interesting a system architecture as it had been disturbing.

The surface structure was not important to Yuri. It did not really mean anything to her or anyone else for that matter. She could feel the data that was packed into the sub-system; she could sense the powerful defence systems that protected that data. So it looked like an evergreen forest, that was just window dressing. It did not have to look like anything at all. She did not have to see it as anything at all, but it was easier to understand when she did.

She flew towards a lake; she could see the sparkle of light off water. That was where the data she wanted was.

Her armour was proof against the detection programs that filled the air in the form of hawks. She saw the powerful attack programs, winged, great-cats, that patrolled, always ready. She was amused by the programmer's sense of fantasy, but did not let herself be distracted by it.

As she approached the lake she felt the presence of a powerful program. It was not fooled by her anti-detection measures and so it came for her. It had no appearance, was only a feeling. She could guess what the designer had been told to create. Powerful, nothing else but powerful: Nothing fancy, something that would simply destroy all intruders.

A soft, red light began to gather on the concave surfaces of her wings, around her arms within her eyes. She felt the attack program approach, felt the first of its probes reaching out for her, trying to get a fix on her. She released her attack.

Beams of light flashed from her wings, her arms, her eyes and her mouth. Those beams tore into the empty space before her. She wished the program did have an appearance as it would have made for an impressive show.

She attacked it with everything she had: Short-lived viruses that degraded the program, weakening it; cascading logic bombs that would tie up its processing abilities; even semi-autonomous attack bots that could alter their behaviour as needed. Its own attacks were no less effective. Yuri erased her infected programs before the virus could spread and loaded new ones in from her protected memory. A circuit breaker in her deck was tripped as a surge of power ripped through it.

It was a close fight, but the attack program crashed first. It almost took her with it in a last-ditch effort, the program exploding into a multitude of micro viruses that attempt to overwhelm her defences with vast numbers. She brought up her shielding programs and the virus splashed harmlessly away.

I win, Yuri thought, and then dove down, slicing into the lake, actually feeling water. That was a fancy bit of programming.

Standing on the lake bottom she opened her wings and spread her arms and legs. The water represented data, and that data flowed through her. She copied it and loaded it into her deck's memory.

Alarms were just beginning to go off as she emerged from the lake, the water shedding from her silvered form. She flew straight towards the exit.

Several attack programs came at her but she slammed them out of the air, the winged felinoids exploding into bits of useless data as energy surges burnt out the dedicated hardware that maintained them.

The ice tried to keep her from exiting, pulling at her as she passed through it, like it was a thick tar. She modified her silvery armour, a 'Teflon' mod she had made to it. The thick ice could not hold her. She was out.

She looked down and saw the black surface clouding, losing its black sheen as it sealed itself. Too late she thought, much too late.

With a touch of a switch Yuri jacked out of the system. There were a few seconds of disorientation, a small part of her cried out for the loss of the computer realm but it passed quickly as it always did.

"You all right?" Kei asked, concern in her voice.

Yuri looked at her friend. Kei was a bit taller than her, red hair that hung below her shoulders, intense brown eyes, in which were echoed the concern in her voice. Her skin was several shades darker then Yuri's. She was just as beautiful.

"Just fine." Yuri smiled.

"You were gone almost a minute. I thought you might have blown it."

"Not this time." Yuri pulled the interface cable from behind her ear.

"Did you get it?"

"All of it." Yuri smiled again. She disconnected the small deck and slid it into the carri-sac slung over her shoulder.

"Let's go then," Kei said as she opened the blast door and looked out into the corridor. "Looks clear."

* * *

The upper administration levels of the Dragon Arcology were almost deserted that late at night. Kei and Yuri were like ghosts, silent and unseen as they moved through the corridors.

Up ahead of them was a crumpled shape that resolved itself into a man, slumped against a wall.

Kei stopped for a second to pull a slim needle from the man's neck. She was careful not to stick her self with it, the toxin was not deadly but it would put her out for a few hours. She dropped the needle into a pouch on her belt and then was off again.

They passed several more unconscious guards and Kei removed the needles from them as well.

Yuri reached a large window that looked out onto a terrace covered with plant life. Opening up her top slightly she pulled out a key card. She slid the card into an almost hidden slot at the base of the window.

Kei came up behind her, leaning over her shoulder slightly to watch.

"How long?" Kei asked impatiently.

"Soon, it's running code breaker."

"Paranoid of them to be changing the codes every, what, thirty minutes?"

"But effective." Yuri heard a click and pushed the window open. "Not completely however." She removed the card.

"Nice timing." Kei followed Yuri out into the terrace. She pushed the window closed.

The two grav-gliders they had used to get onto the terrace were still hidden behind some bushes, undisturbed.

Yuri touched her gliders control panel activating the AG unit. The small glider lifted two meters above the terrace's surface. As Yuri swung herself up into the harness she saw Kei doing the same. Yuri swung her arm out, hand in the thumbs-up gesture. Kei returned the signal.

Both of the trouble consultants twisted the accelerators on the control yokes sending the gliders out into the sky. The dark grey material of the gliders blended into the night sky, making them almost invisible.

Except for several unconscious guards, a few crashed programs, and some company deckers who were still trying to figure out what happened, the two trouble consultants had left little other evidence of their presence.

* * *

Alantis was a dry planet, not really desert, but very close in some areas. It was rich in precious stones and rare metals needed for the building of warp-drives. The population was small, which was fortunate, for the planet would have been hard pressed to support a large population.

Janice Sommes was the planet's prime minister, nearing the end of her six-year term. Her office was in a steel and glass monolith that housed most of the government offices. The small population had also mandated a small governmental body, which could therefore be housed in a single building. A security nightmare, but it offered a great deal of convenience.

She sat behind an old and heavily scarred, oak desk chewing on the end of her pen, her feet swung up onto the desktop.

Janice was young for her position but then again the colony on Alantis was young also. Her light brown hair was cut short and swept up. Her eyes were dark brown and large giving her a false look of innocence that she knew how to use. Her skin was light brown and smooth.

She wore a conservative skirt of grey silk, a blue blouse with a grey scarf, and a soft leather jacket.

It was early morning. Usually she did not come in that early, but the last few days had been anything but usual.

The planet's chief industrialist had been assassinated six days ago. That he had also run one of the larger Mega-corporations in the United Galactica had not helped matters much. Four days ago 3WA had sent her the Lovely Angels to help with a problem she was not entirely sure existed, at least not on her planet.

Janice had greeted the news with mixed feelings. The presence of the Dirty Pair had destroyed more then one politician's career. Of course they had also destroyed more then one planet. It was hard to get votes in a wasteland. However, if one thing could be said of Miss Sommes it was that she knew how to use almost anything as an opportunity.

As soon as she had learned that the Trouble Consultants were on their way she had called up all the information on the Lovely Angels from every database she could find. She had put all her emergency services on full alert. She had emptied a warehouse of Vizorium to raise the capital she needed to hire off planet disaster specialists.

That was going to drive the market price of Vizorium down for about a year, maybe two depending on how much star ship construction happened. She was all ready getting nasty communications from other planets and corporations who dealt in the metal. That did not matter much to her though. Alantis could fall back on its precious gem exports for the duration.

All that mattered to Janice was that if she could stave off the disaster the two trouble consultants were sure to unleash on her planet, it would guarantee her re-election in a few months.

Unfortunately in the four days the Dirty Pair had been on planet they had not even fired one weapon that she knew of. No one was dead, no property had been blown up, nothing had happened. As far as she knew it was some kind of record for the two trouble consultants: Just her luck to get the two women when they were on a lucky streak.

The intercom on her desk chimed. She knocked a pile of papers, which were more for decoration than any administrative use, off her desk, which was also for decoration, as she swung her legs down and leaned forward to tap the talk button.

"What is it John?" she asked her aide.

"The Lovely Angels are here to see you madam Prime Minister."

"They wouldn't happen to be covered in blood, or soot, or look like they've been through a thrasher, you know ripped uniforms, missing weapons, minor wounds, that sort of thing?" she asked. It was a long shot, but she was hopeful.

"No," her aide told her.

"Oh well." She sighed. "Send them in."

Standing, she brushed her hands down her skirt to straighten it and kicked the paper under the desk.

Yuri and Kei came into the office, no sign of anything that suggested disaster. Both wore their silverish grey uniforms, v-cut shorts, tops that showed a lot of cleavage and had collars that were more a fashion accessory than anything else. Their midriffs were bare, showing an indecent amount of beautiful skin, calf-hugging boots ended just below their knees.

Janice's sexual tastes were fairly flexible and if it was not for the fact both wore weapons, which she deplored, she might have done something to embarrass herself.

"Ladies." Janice indicated the chairs in front of her desk.

"Thank you madam prime minister," Yuri said as she and Kei sat.

"Janice." She took her seat. "Now what can I do for you?"

"We know who killed Franklin Lewis, AKA the Dragon." Kei smiled, looking rather pleased with herself.

"Who?" Janice asked, surprised. Her government investigators had yet to uncover anything of value.

"Franklin Lewis." Yuri pulled a disk from inside her top and handed it to Janice. "It's all there but I will give you the basics."

"Please do," Janice said, holding the still warm disk. She forced her mind away from where the disk had been and why it was so warm.

"Six days ago, at twenty seven thirty hours Mr. Lewis was killed by a sniper firing a titanium, 12mm slug fired from a sniper rifle. The assassin has not been found."

"I am aware of this," Janice told Yuri. Her tone was perhaps a little sharp.

"Did you also know that two hours prior that he had a brain tape completed and that the brain tape was fed into his bodyguard right after he was declared legally dead?" Yuri asked.

"No, that I did not know. I hope this disk holds proof of what your saying."

"It does," Kei reassured her.

"Did you also know that his body guard, Miss Felis, is a bioroid, feline gene base?"

"I suspected her catty looks were more than skin deep. Tell me, what was Miss Felis' opinion about having her body appropriated?" Janice was considering the possibility of nailing Lewis on a mind wipe charge.

"She didn't have an opinion. Her mind, if you could call it that, was fairly simple. Her world revolved around protecting Lewis with a little bit of memory dedicated to acting fairly normal."

"I always did think she was a bit vacant."

"The body belonged to Lewis and the mind certainly wasn't sapient, hardly sentient. While what he did may be considered socially inappropriate I doubt it is illegal," Kei told her.

"I take it that the hypothesis that Lewis left her control of his holdings due to the fact they were lovers is all shot to hell?"

"I doubt that Mr. Lewis was hard up enough that he would choose to sleep with her. Barely a step above masturbation." Yuri smiled, as if to make a joke of it.

"Do you know why he did it?" Janice leaned forward.

"Four years ago he started acting senile. His competitors moved in to bring him down. Then suddenly he wasn't acting senile and he closed a trap which increased his power by almost twenty percent."

"I remember. So you think he's setting up another trap."

"So it would seem," Kei said.

"That bastard." Janice leaned back in her seat. "The crafty bastard, and I can't do a thing to him."

"You could charge him with conspiracy to murder, but that might fall into the area of suicide and there is not much useful precedent for convicting a successful suicide," Yuri told her. "And I suspect he has the lawyers to fight any criminal charges and win."

"Or tie it up in court until he really does die," Kei said.

"So it would be a waste of time. The best I can do is some fines for mischief."

"Which considering the man's, or woman's, resources wouldn't mean much to him, or her," Kei said.

"There is something we could do to screw her up a little," Yuri suggested, not bothering to mix her pronouns.

"Such as?" Janice asked.

"Why don't you call the good Miss Felis and tell her you want to see her while we take care of our surprise."

Janice thought about it for a few seconds then reached over to her com and typed in the code for the Dragon Arcology. What was the worst that could happen? The thought should have made her feel better, but considering the reputation of the women sitting across from her, it did not.

* * *

The body that had once been known as Miss Felis was quite attractive: Almost two meters tall, athletic and slim, a mane of dark blonde hair that was neatly styled and hung just below her shoulders. Her eyes were green, with the slit pupils of a cat. She had a small nose, generous mouth, and dark creamy skin. Her ears were pointed and longer than human ears, but the tips were currently hidden under a wide brim hat she wore.

Her dress was black, with a loose, long skirt that almost touched the floor. It tightened at the waist and ended below her shoulders. A black jacket covered her arms but was open so the top of her chest showed, as well as some cleavage.

Kei could understand why people had though Felis and Lewis had been lovers. The body had the exotic looks that attracted people, unless you considered the fingernails at the end of her fingers. Getting one's back scratched by those in the throws of passion would be a good way to loose a spine.

"Madame prime minister, I'm sorry I can't stay long but I have affairs that need taking care of," she said in low voice, a slight, throaty growl in it. "Now what is it you wanted to talk to me about?"

"I would hate to waste your time," Janice said. "I just have one question. Would you like to be addressed as Mr. or Miss Lewis, or will you be keeping Felis as your name?"

"Perhaps just Dragon, it's fairly genderless," Kei suggested helpfully.

Lewis was silent for a few seconds, a stunned look on her face, and then she smiled in such a way that showed her sharp eyeteeth. It was rather disconcerting. "Is this some sort of joke or do you have proof," she asked sweetly.

"Here." Janice took a pile of freshly printed pages off her desk and tossed them to the woman.

Felis caught them easily and turned her attention to them. After leafing through them she let the papers drop to the floor.

"So now what? Are you going to try and press charges?" She asked, apparently unconcerned.

"Waste of time, as we both know, though some will be brought against you. I just wanted you to know I was aware of your little deception and that I'm cancelling the investigation into your murder. If you want you can go now."

"Thank you. By the way I will be going by Felis Lewis from now on." She turned to leave.

"I'd watch out for the press," Yuri said.

"Pardon?" Felis turned slowly.

"We have a few friends in the press, this story was a gift to them." Yuri smiled.

"I see." Felis said, her tone soft. "How long ago did you give this," she paused for a moment, "gift out?"

"An hour ago, give or take. Don't you wish you had gotten here faster?" Kei asked her.

Felis reached into her purse and pulled out a phone.

"Tagert," she spoke into the mouthpiece, "close the trap now, we've been found out." She waited, obviously listening. "Yes I know we haven't gotten all of them yet but they're going to start pulling out very soon. Yes. Good. Oh and Tagert, cancel my funeral; we'll change it into a wake and coming out party type of deal. Right. Good bye." She put the phone back into her purse.

"You're very good," Felis said to Kei and Yuri.

"Thank you," Kei replied.

"Could you tell me why the United Galactica thought my death was important enough to involve 3WA?"

"The possible collapse of a Mega-corporation of the size of Dragon Interstellar is always bad news," Yuri said. "It is even worse if might be taken over by a person who would use assassination to get it. Your company has several contracts with the UG, it was important to them that Dragon stayed under friendly and or trustworthy control."

"I see," Felis said quietly.

"If they had just stepped in it would have caused all kinds of problems so we were sent to find out what had happened so the UG wouldn't have to step on any toes, as it were," Kei told her.

"Thank you." Felis said. "Madame Prime minister." She bowed slightly. "Lovely Angels." She saluted them, and then left the room.

"Case closed." Kei smiled.

"See you later Janice," Yuri said as she and Kei got to their feet.

"Good day ladies," The Prime Minister said as she stood to see them from her office.

* * *

They left the government building and stepped into the late morning sunshine. It was going to be a beautiful day. Most days on Alantis were beautiful. It was dry but not unbearably so and while always warm it was not often hot and almost never humid. A thick ozone layer about the planet let people enjoy the sun without being afraid of it.

Kei ran a few steps in front of Yuri then stopped, stretched, and spun on the toe of her boot. The sun's rays seemed to caress her as she turned.

"You know what?" Kei asked as Yuri caught up with her.

"What?"

"We can stay here."

"Pardon?"

"We don't have to leave, no one hates us here, we didn't kill anyone or destroy anything or cause any trouble. We're on class F standby..."

"More likely class E, this wasn't a tough case," Yuri interrupted.

"Whatever," Kei dismissed Yuri's comment. "Let's stay here for at least a couple of days."

"Okay," Yuri agreed. She liked the thought of staying. They had never been able to do it before.

"Let's go to the Angel, grab what we need, contact 3WA, and then find a hotel."

"Works for me," Yuri told her.

* * *

The Alantis Hilton had been built with local stone; huge slabs of it formed the large building. Its highest floor was only six stories above the ground but it sprawled over a large area. Each of the many wings were of different heights making the entire building look more like a natural feature of the land than a constructed thing.

Each roof was covered in a lush garden, stairs and bridges led from one roof to another. It added to the illusion that the building was part of the landscape.

Kei and Yuri had checked into a suite late in the morning. The previous night's activities quickly caught up with them and both were soon asleep.

Shortly before sunset Yuri woke to the buzzing of her telephone. She picked it up and was told by a very polite computer that it was her wake up call. She cradled the handset.

Rolling out of her bed and onto her feet Yuri headed for her bathroom.

In the suite's other bedroom Kei was doing much the same.

* * *

Yuri had put on a light grey dress that ended just above her knees. It had a low-neck line and loose sleeves that were tied at the wrist with blue cord. She wore a blue sash around her waist that matched her eyes.

"What do you think Mughi?" Yuri asked, holding up a dark grey jacket of soft leather.

Mughi growled softly. The large black cat lay among the dishevelled sheets of her bed. They had had a bit of trouble with the staff when they had brought Mughi in. Kei had not helped matters much, she seemed to enjoy the effect Mughi had on others and often went out of her way to increase it.

"I think you're right." Yuri nodded as she put the jacket aside and pulled one of black silk from her garment bag. "This is much better." She pulled the jacket on. "See you later Mughi." Yuri said as she put on a pair of black slippers and then left the room.

Kei exited her room at almost the same time and they both met in the living room.

The redhead wore a pair of black jeans, a tight white t-shirt, a black denim jacket with the sleeves rolled up past her elbows, and a pair of ankle boots.

"I take it we aren't doing the same thing this night," Yuri said.

"Well you are a little over dressed for bar hoping," Kei told her.

"I doubt they'd even let you into to the rather exclusive club I'm planning on spending the evening at."

"Oh well." Kei shrugged her shoulders. "I'll see you later then."

"Kei, when you get arrested, and you will, just contact me," Yuri touched her earring, "and I'll come down and bail you out."

"Leave a note in your purse to get a hold of me when you go into a boredom coma."

"See you later." Yuri smiled at Kei as she left the room.

Kei checked on a few things and then left a minute later.

* * *

The cab dropped Yuri off in front of a building in the middle of the city. The club had no name, though it was often referred to as 'The Club'. It was built in Gothic style, the stone, it was said, had come from Terra, the cathedral of Notre Dame it was claimed. It certainly did look it.

Yuri walked up the broad stairs, a huge stone lion rested on each side. All the stonework was stained by time, the entire building looked harsh, cold, almost frightening. Ghost stories, thought long forgotten, raised themselves in Yuri's mind. She laughed at herself and continued up the stairs, pausing to pat one of the lions on the head, to the large double-doors that looked like oak.

A doorman stood in a small niche and he came out to greet her. Yuri gave him her name, he touched a small control unit at his belt and the doors opened enough for her to enter.

The Club was very exclusive she had been told. The very rich, the very powerful and the very famous were common inside its walls. Yuri wondered which category she was considered in.

The inside of the building contrasted with the outside. Soft soothing colours met the eye, the carpet was soft, the entire atmosphere comfortable.

A butler seemed to fade out of the woodwork to stand beside her. Yuri marvelled out how quietly he had moved and then asked him where the library was. He told her politely and she took the stairs up to the third floor.

The library took up most of the third floor. Huge windows lined the south wall but were covered by thick curtains. A large stone fireplace with a thick marble mantle took up half of the west wall. Wood was neatly laid on the grate but was unlit. With Alantis' warm climate Yuri doubted it was ever needed but she would not be surprised if they occasionally lowered the temperature in the library so as to have an excuse to light a fire.

The rest of the walls were covered by bookshelves, except were they were broken by a doorway. Thousands of books filled those shelves. Even in a time where most printed material was stored soft copy there was still a demand for hard copy reading material. All the books looked to be bound in leather, or something like it, and the spines were covered in gold and silver lettering.

A servant came up to her and asked if she wanted anything to drink. Yuri asked the woman for a scotch and water and then walked into the room.

There were only a few people in the library; none of them gave much attention to Yuri as most were absorbed in quiet conversations or books. Yuri crossed to a shelf opposite to her and scanned the titles.

She took a recent work on computer technology, a little surprised by the fact they had bothered to put a tech book in printed form, and then took a seat in one of the high backed leather covered chairs. Her drink was set at a small table by her elbow as she was sitting down. Yuri thanked the woman then turned her attention to the book.

* * *

Leaping up onto the thin railing of the bridge Kei looked down into the rapids several meters below. Alantis was a dry planet but there were many underground lakes sealed off from the surface by hundreds of meters of rocks.

The city's builders had sunk shafts down into those lakes and pumped the water up to the surface. A kilometre behind Kei water jetted up into the air from one of the lakes before it flowed into one of five cleverly constructed riverbeds. The growing forest that surrounded Kei was fed by the rivers.

It was all quite beautiful but did not interest Kei much. She was taking a path through the park that led to the city's spaceport. A lot of bars and other establishments that interested her were in that area. It would have been more fun if Yuri had come though, even if she did tend to be sort of a wet blanket.

"I hope your not planning to jump," someone said from behind her. "I'd feel honour bound to try to save you but I'm not a good swimmer." The speaker, Kei noted, had an accent that she could not immediately place.

Kei turned to face the speaker. He was tall, thin, but well built. His long hair was light brown, his eyes a hard grey. He had an androgynous quality about him that Kei found appealing. He was well dressed in black pants, a white shirt, black sports jacket, and black boots.

"No," Kei said as she stepped down onto the path. "Not really."

"Good." He looked at her closer. "3WA, Lovely Angels, Kei, right?"

"Yes." Kei was somewhat taken aback. Almost no one recognized them as the Lovely Angels. "How did you know?"

"Allow me to introduce myself. Robert Tenshou, ambassador of the United Galactica. I've had some dealings with a planet or two that you and your partner graced with your presences." There was a sparkle of amusement in his eyes but nothing about it was insulting.

"I see," she said.

"Tell me Kei do you have any plans for the night?"

"Not really." She smiled.

"Then perhaps you would not be adverse to spending the evening with me."

"That sounds inviting." Kei took his arm.

He smiled warmly at her. Things are looking up Kei thought.

* * *

Yuri was beginning to think Kei had been right about her evening plans being boring.

She swirled her glass of scotch absently in her hand. She had wanted a bit of quiet, something she did not often get, but this was just plain boring. She was considering heading back to the hotel to change before attempting to link up with Kei.

Movement in her peripheral vision made her turn her head. She found herself looking at a cyborg, which was well over two meters tall. It looked like it was a full conversion from what she could see. He, yes definitely he she thought, getting a strong male feeling, wore a long, loose, tan jacket, belted at his waist, and loose, off white pants.

He looked at the seats around the room and then with a shrug of his shoulders took a seat on the floor. His head was still slightly above Yuri's even then. A servant came up and placed a tray with a large glass of amber liquid on it beside him. He thanked her then put a straw in the glass to drink.

Above his mouth his he lost all human appearance. Several lenses were grouped together where he would have had eyes and a nose but for the modifications. No ears, but a pair of sensor booms were attached slightly above where ears would be.

Yuri watched as the sensor booms moved, dropping back together before one shot up again. The tip of the rod folded back to show a small lens that seemed to focus on something behind him. Yuri twisted in her seat to look. A very attractive woman in a very short and revealing dress was walking by.

Definitely male Yuri thought. She laughed softly.

The cyborg obviously heard for he turned towards Yuri. If it was possible for a cyborg to look embarrassed this one did. He turned back to his drink, the cover on his sensor rod snapping back over the lens.

He turned to look at Yuri again and Yuri found herself staring into the lenses of his many eyes.

"Excuse me," he said softly, in a deep, pleasant sounding voice, "you're Yuri of the Lovely Angels, aren't you."

"Uh yes..." Yuri said, slightly surprised. Few people recognized her and those that did almost always knew her as one of the Dirty Pair. "How did you know?"

"Well I'm sort of a fan," he told her, looking a little embarrassed again.

That worried Yuri. Most people who claimed to be fans were either death perverts or sex perverts, sometimes even both.

He waved his hands as if in denial. "Not really a fan," he amended. "I was, well I still am, a mercenary. I've always been somewhat interested in 3WA and the Lovely Angels are in the news a lot."

His tone told Yuri he knew why they were always in the news but was polite enough, or smart enough, not to go into detail.

"I'm Daniel Anderson." He shifted himself smoothly and held out his hand to Yuri. Yuri took it and her hand was engulfed in his. She could feel the strength in it and knew he could easily crush every bone in the hand as well as tear her arm from her body with only a small fraction of that strength.

"A pleasure," Yuri told him, smiling.

"Do you like the music?" Daniel asked before an uncomfortable silence could set in.

"Well..." In truth Yuri thought it was rather boring. "...It's not really to my taste."

"In other words it bores you," he said, slight smile on his lips and it seemed it was somehow echoed in the lenses that were his eyes. "I know the woman who composed it, she would probably be greatly insulted by that so it is fortunate she is not here."

"I take it you like it," Yuri said.

"Well yes, but after a time it can get a bit, shall we say..."

"Boring." Yuri smiled.

"Alas, yes." Daniel sighed if he had conceded a major point. Yuri decided that she liked him. Things were looking up.

* * *

Robert blocked the larger man's punch, grabbed the man's wrist, and then slammed his forearm against his opponent's arm with all his weight behind it. There was a loud crack as the arm broke. He kicked the man's legs out from under him as a finishing move. 

"Not bad," Kei said from where she sat on her stool. "Your blocks are a bit slow."

"Well then, perhaps you'd like the next one." Robert indicated another man who was quickly approaching them through the rest of the fight.

"Fine with me." Kei slid off her stool. "This is the last one though, I hear sirens."

"Of course my lady."

Kei leapt onto the bar and ran down it. She kicked the man in the head as she passed him. He had not seen it coming and simply feel senseless to the floor.

"Well that certainly wasn't cricket." Robert helped Kei off the bar to the floor.

"I'm a bad girl," Kei told him.

"Shall we leave?" He offered her his arm. Kei took it.

They pushed their way through the throng of people and out the door. A few seconds later the first police cruiser landed, but the officers ignored Kei and Robert.

"Six bars, four fights," Kei said. "The police must be impressed."

"Well you only started one of those directly. Really Kei you should be more careful about throwing glasses around."

"You sound like Yuri." Kei giggled.

"You could cost me my job." He smiled. "It would almost be worth it." He stopped, took Kei in his arms and kissed her; Kei returned it with as much passion. "Lust or love?" He asked breathlessly when they separated.

"Does it matter?" Kei asked him, looking up into his eyes.

"Not really." He resumed walking.

"Tell me, where did a diplomat learn to fight like that?"

"Misspent youth on Alpha Centauri," he told her.

"Ahh." Kei knew how rough it was on Alpha Centauri. "It couldn't have been too misspent. They don't make people diplomats because they have a good right cross."

"True my lady, true. I also did very well in school, scholarships to the best universities, that sort of thing."

"So what are you doing here?"

"This is just a stop over. I'm going to the Zetaris system. Two planets are having a little war that wouldn't be any big thing if two Mega corps weren't influencing things. I'm off to see if I can put a stop to it before things get nasty and the navy has to be sent in." He said it all in a relaxed tone, but Kei noticed he had made sure no one had been close enough to hear them.

"So when do you leave?"

"An hour or two."

"What?" Kei asked, a little louder than she had intended.

"I wish I could stay." He smiled at her. "As much as I'd like to, I never sleep with a woman who I've only just met."

"You sound sure of yourself," she said, a bit of anger in her tone.

"I'm not." His smile disarmed the situation. "But I can't help but feel it is possible. Alas I'd also like to have a long time to make love to one such as you."

"Stay," Kei said as they approached his motorcycle.

"It is tempting. Would you like to come with me?"

"I can't. The brass at 3WA would blow a gasket and Yuri probably wouldn't be impressed with me for just taking off like that."

"So we both have our duties." He got on his motorcycle and handed the helmet to Kei. "Let's go my lady. We can wait in the spaceport's bar, mind you no fights." He smiled at her.

"What's with all this lady stuff anyway?" Kei put the helmet on. "And how did an Alpha Centaurian come to have a British accent." She had identified his accent several bars earlier. She straddled the seat behind him, wrapping her arms around his waist.

Robert only laughed as he started the cycle up. Once Kei had climbed on behind him, wrapping her arms around his waist, he put the bike in gear and drove out of the parking lot, heading for the spaceport.

* * *

Yuri found herself staring at Daniel; she wasn't really listening to what he said.

Earlier in the evening, much earlier, he had mentioned his composer friend was also a poet. He had found a book of her works in the library and began to read some of them. That had split off into a discussion on the merits of pulp fiction as literature, which had found its way into a discussion of warp mechanics.

They had wandered from topic to topic, computers, weapons, physics, music, everything and anything it seemed to Yuri. Daniel was a true scholar and she had to work to keep up.

The alcohol had also been flowing over the course of the evening and Yuri found herself very detached from the rest of the world.

The library was empty except for them and the occasional servant. Yuri was curled up on the seat of her chair, her head resting on her arms, which she had laid on the armrests.

She wondered what Daniel would be like in bed, flushing slightly with the thought. She wondered if he still had the right equipment as it were. Then she looked at his fingers, large and strong but oh so gentle. The crystal brandy snifter her held in his hands was fragile but he had yet to break even one. Which was more then Yuri could say about the tumblers she had been drinking from.

A thought came into her head. Daniel could see into the IR spectrum. He could see where her blood flowed, and the places it flowed when one was sexually excited were obvious. The thought that he could read her like an open book at this moment made her smile.

"You're not listening to me are you?" His change in tone caught her attention.

"No." Yuri laughed softly.

"It's getting late." He got to his feet.

"It's getting early." She laughed again.

"Come on." He took her up in his arms as if she were a child.

Yuri leaned her head against his chest and let her eyes close to slits. The feel of his jacket against her cheek, the hardness underneath, the clean smell of the clothing, the distinctive scent of cyberware and also a touch of human flesh, they were all like an aphrodisiac.

"Aren't you going to get fresh with me?" she asked him. "One of your hands in perfectly placed for it."

Daniel only smiled.

"My place or yours?" she asked.

"Neither I'm afraid. I have to be on a starship in an hour or so. You're also more than a little drunk."

"Can't you stay?" Yuri asked, sadness in her voice.

"No, I'm sorry."

"Promise me something."

"What?"

"See if you can track me down when you get a chance."

"I promise. I'll drop you a line at least. I'd like to meet you again when I'm sober"

The doorman had all ready had a cab waiting at the bottom of the steps. Daniel gently slid Yuri into the back seat.

Yuri reached her arms around his neck and with surprising strength pulled his face close to hers.

She kissed him lightly, chastely ignoring the hard chin. Then she released him and fell back into the seat.

"Remember your promise," she said as Daniel closed the door and the cab pulled off.

Daniel climbed the stairs back into the building and took his coat from the butler.

"Does the lady's bill need to be paid?" he asked the butler.  
"No sir," the man told him. "Miss Yuri's here as a guest of both the Prime Minister's office and the Dragon corporation."

"Good." He got into his coat and left the building. The doorman all ready had a cab for him. He got in and told the driver to take him to the spaceport.

* * *

Kei sat on Robert's lap, kissing him deeply. Robert slid his hands under her jacket and up her back.

"Are you sure you won't stay?" she asked, breaking the kiss.

"You could tempt a priest to break his vows you know."

"But you still can't stay."

"Sorry."

"Oh well," Kei said and kissed him again.

"I really have to go Kei," he told her as he gently pushed her away.

"You're no fun at all." Kei pouted as she slid off his lap onto the padded seat of the booth they were in.

"Unfortunately duty calls." He stood. "Good bye Kei." He bent down and brushed her lips with his. "It was a privilege to meet you." He straightened and was gone.

Kei leaned back in her seat, sighing. All fired up and he leaves me, she thought. She finished her drink and slid the empty glass across the table. It teetered on the opposite edge then stabilized. She sighed again and reached across the table and flicked it with her index finger. It fell and shattered on the floor.

* * *

The sun was beginning to rise when the two trouble consultants got back to the Alantis Hilton. Kei came through the rear entrance from the park. Yuri's cab dropped her off at the main entrance. Yuri had lost most of her high but was too tired to notice. She stumbled into the main lobby and headed down a corridor.

They met just outside the door to their suite.

"Good night?" Kei asked.

"Tolerable. And you?"

"Adequate."

"I met the most wonderful man..." they said together then stopped and laughed.

"Come on." Yuri said as she opened the door with a card key. "Let's order room service and talk about them before going to bed."

Kei nodded as they entered the room.

* * *

The hotel maid carried a silver tray, on which was an envelope, to suite 435. She knocked lightly on the door. Supposedly the two guests had come in very late and would probably still be asleep even though it was already late in the afternoon. She was getting ready to slip the envelope under the door when it opened.

Mughi eyed the maid curiously. He was on his rear paws, one of his front paws braced against the doorframe to hold him up.

The maid screamed, dropped the tray, and bolted towards the elevators at the far end of the hall.

Mughi dropped down to examine the envelope.

* * *

Yuri woke hearing a scream. She rolled out of her bed, grabbed her pistol from under her pillow, and then ran out of her room in a crouch.

The door was open and no one seemed to be in the suite. She leapt out of the suite, rolled, and came up with her pistol pointing in the direction she saw movement.

Several other guests screamed and closed their doors.

A moment later Kei dove out of the room facing the opposite direction from Yuri. She had a heavy laser rifle cradled in her arms. The remaining people still sticking their heads out of their doors quickly closed them. More than one screamed.

Yuri and Kei looked around trying to figure out what was going on.

Mughi butted his head against Yuri's side. The two tentacles on the sides of his head held a silver tray with an envelope on it. Yuri took the envelope and Mughi let the tray drop.

"He must have scared the hell out of one of the maids," Kei said.

"I don't suppose we helped the situation." Yuri looked at the unmarked envelope.

"Especially considering the way you are dressed."

Yuri looked down. She had collapsed into sleep before she could get all her clothes off. She was dressed in just her lingerie and her blouse.

"And I suppose a t-shirt and panties are all the fashion," Yuri said, looking at Kei.

"Come on." The redhead slung her rifle as she stood. "Let's get inside before someone has us arrested for indecent exposure."

"As if we're indecent." Yuri followed Kei into the room.

"So what's in the envelope?" Kei asked.

"Let's see." Yuri tossed her pistol onto a couch and tore the envelope open. "It's an invitation to a party tonight at the Dragon Industries Arcology. We are the personal guests Miss Felis Lewis."

"You're joking?"

"No." Yuri handed Kei the thick paper.

"I don't get it," Kei said after reading the invitation. "Why invite us?"

"A trap?"

"Doubtful," Kei told her.

"Maybe she likes us."

"Considering she was a male a week ago that could be possible."

"You want to go?" Yuri asked.

"That's a stupid question, of course I want to go. It could be fun."

"Well let's get cleaned up then go out and buy some dresses. Do you think we could put them on our 3WA credit vouchers?"

"Probably. We'll list it as incidental post investigation costs," Kei called over her shoulder as she headed into her bathroom.

Yuri nodded as she went into her room.

* * *

Yuri stood in front of the mirror and fixed her hair. She wore a black, backless cocktail dress, with a skirt that stopped at the middle of her thighs. Black stockings, black, high-heeled shoes with pointed toes, and a pair of black gloves completed the outfit. She thought it was just perfect.

Stepping out into her bedroom she took her purse from the dresser. Mughi, who was on her bed, growled.

"I haven't forgotten you Mughi," Yuri said as she crossed the room to her bedside table. She opened a small pouch that contained things like aspirin, Midol and her birth control. She shook a Kalium capsule out of a vial and tossed it to the big cat.

"If you decide to go out tonight try not to be seen," Yuri told him as she left her room.

* * *

Kei pulled the red leather skirt up her stocking covered legs and touched the seal tab close. She pushed her black camisole under the waistband of the skirt and smoothed it out. The micro-mini skirt was, perhaps, a little too short, but she decided that she liked it. She took the matching red, leather jacket from where it hung and slipped into it, touching the seal tabs closed.

She reached back and pulled her hair from under the jacket. With a black ribbon she tied it back and then drew the tail over her shoulder. The leather was close in colour to her hair but differed enough for one to set the other off.

She slid her feet into the black high heels she had chosen and then went into her bedroom.

A slim line Tan Mai rail pistol slipped into an inner pocket of the jacket without spoiling the lines. Not the best weapon, she thought as she picked up her purse, but still useful.

Yuri was waiting for her in the common room, dressed in a sexy, black dress.

"Do you like?" Yuri smiled then spun on her toe for Kei.

"You know if you weren't my friend I might hate you." Kei laughed.

"Thank you," Yuri said.

"Well, shall we go?"

"Of course. The limo is waiting for us."

* * *

The grav limo took them to a large balcony high on the Dragon Arcology. It settled down gently and uniformed servants were opening the doors for them. Yuri thanked the one who helped her from the car.

A large, bright room opened onto the balcony. They could hear music and the buzz of conversation from within.

Both women drew more than a few stares as they entered. Several men began to drift towards them but Felis Lewis was at their sides first.

"I'm glad you could come," she said and smiled, showing her predatory teeth.

The Dragon wore a short grey skirt, with a white blouse and grey jacket. All were no doubt of the finest material and Yuri suspected the outfit had been made for her. Kei noticed Felis had quite a few people watching her. That was not surprising all things considered.

"We're happy to be here," Yuri said. Her tone was light and she smiled. "It was ever so kind of you to invite us."

"How could I not invite you? 3WA trouble consultants are probably among the most interesting people."

"We thought you might be thinking about revenge?" Kei smiled as well, but it did not touch her eyes.

Yuri watching this began to get nervous. Kei could be headstrong at times.

"Oh I considered revenge for a couple of minutes but really, what purpose would it serve? There's simply no profit in it."

Kei nodded, the aspect of readiness she had held left her as she relaxed.

"Now let me get you two a drink and then you can tell me about how you got in, yes? I'd like to find out about some of the security problems," she said as she led them towards a bar at the back of the room.

"So what's the purpose of this gathering?" Kei asked, as she looked around at all the people.

"It was supposed to be my funeral but I decided I couldn't really have one any more. Now it is just a chance to let everyone find out what's happening. I have to let them sniff around; find out how things are going now. It's all rather funny, in a way."

"So what about your trap?" Yuri asked as they reached the bar.

"Brim soda," Kei said to the bartender and then looked at Yuri. Yuri nodded and Kei said, "And a martini."

"Well it went fairly well all things considered. Several people just couldn't believe it and waited too long. I didn't get as much as I wanted but I did fairly well. Now all I have to do is come up with another clever plot."

"Problems with the law?" Yuri asked.

"A few but I put one of my law firms on it."

"What about your competitors?" Kei asked as she handed Yuri her drink.

"I suppose they'll try something, I have no idea what perhaps..."

Whatever else she was about to say was lost as the huge, glass windows were shattered by the incoming fire from an attack helicopter that had not been there a second before.

All three women leapt over the bar, Yuri, hampered by her tight dress, almost did a nosedive into the floor. The bartender was cowering on the floor. They pushed through a door out into a long hallway.

"Perhaps they'll try something like that," Kei said listening to gunfire and screams.

"One of the problems with your security is that it is vulnerable to air attacks," Yuri told her.

"Thanks a lot," Felis said as she pushed her hair out of her eyes.

"Do you think they've put troops in yet?" Yuri asked Kei.

"No doubt," Kei said.

As if to prove her words a figure in armour burst through a door further down the hall from them. He was standing with his back to them.

"Not one of mine," Felis said.

Kei drew her pistol and aimed. Armour all over, but the helmet left a bit of neck uncovered. She squeezed the trigger. The man went down.

"Let's get his weapon," Yuri said, her tone eager.

"Let's not," Kei said as more armoured figures came through the door.

"This way," Felis called as she ran down the hall. Kei and Yuri followed.

The soldiers saw them and began to fire. Turning a corner brought them to cover, for the moment.

"I hate this," Yuri said.

"Join the club." Kei ran a finger over a rent in her jacket. Too damn close she thought.

"Here," Felis said as she pushed in a section of the wall. A little further down a larger section swung open, revealing a ladder leading down. "Quickly."

Kei and Yuri were scrambling down the ladder, followed by Felis, who only slowed to close the door.

"Do you have many of these secret passageways?" Yuri asked as she looked up, finding herself staring up Felis' skirt.

"A few, it's always useful to have a bolt hole or two."

"Where does this go?" Kei asked.

"Down six levels. From there we can get to an arms cache close by. After that..."

"How long till the police arrive?" Yuri asked.

"They might not. We are rather secluded and if whoever is attacking managed to cut off communications the police won't even know this is happening for at least a few hours."

"What about your own security?" Kei asked.

"Depends on the number of attackers. They might be kept busy for quite awhile."

"Great," Kei said sarcastically. They continued the rest of the way in silence.

When they reached the bottom of the shaft Felis opened another of the secret doors and looked out into the corridor.

"It looks clear but I can hear voices," She told Kei and Yuri.

"How far to the arms cache?" Kei asked.

"About five hundred meters."

"I thought you said it was close," Yuri accused.

"Close is a relative term. This arcology is huge if you haven't noticed."

"Damn," Kei cursed softly. "Okay, let's go."

The three women bolted out of the hidden passage, Yuri paused to kick the door closed. Felis led them at a run down the corridors. She took several turns, once totally reversing their course when she heard voices ahead.

Finally she stopped in front of a featureless wall. Reaching up to where the wall met the ceiling she pressed a piece of the trim. Another hidden door swung open and she ushered Yuri and Kei through it before closing it behind them.

Once the door was closed the lights came. The stark, white light reflected off the weapons in their racks as well as the screens of several workstations.

"How the hell do you run in heels?" Felis asked as she slid down the wall and rubbed her ankles. She had kicked off her shoes after the third time she stumbled.

"Years of practice," Kei said as she took off her shoes and looked at the broken heel. "And reinforced heels." Kei rubbed at her right ankle, wincing slightly as she did so.

Yuri had found a box full of dark grey combat fatigues but after rooting through then she didn't find any her size. She pulled the smallest pair of pants from the box and then took a knife to slash the pants into shorts.

"What are you doing?" Kei asked Yuri.

"Altering the fit, I never claimed to be a seamstress." She laid the shorts aside and then found a shirt that would come close to fitting her.

"She's probably got the right idea," Kei told Felis.

Felis nodded and got up.

Felis had no problem with the sizes; she was tall enough that they fit fairly well. Kei followed Yuri's example.

Yuri slipped out of her dress then pulled the shorts on. She had to use one of the holster belts to cinch them tight enough so they would not fall. She pulled the shirt on and tied it closed.

"Are you sure you want to keep that jacket?" Kei asked Felis who had just dumped her skirt and was pulling on a pair of pants.

"It has an armour cloth weave," was all Felis said as she crossed to the workstations and took a seat.

"Well," Yuri said as she looked down at herself. "It might not get me into a fashion magazine but showing the tops of stockings and garter clasps is supposedly going to be the latest trend to come back into fashion."

"Yuri could you worry about something other then if you're a fashion plate." Kei grabbed a pistol from the weapon rack, shoved it into a shoulder holster, and then tossed it to Yuri. "An electro-mag."

"Thanks," Yuri said as she slid into the holster.

Kei took a laser carbine from the rack and removed the stock. She checked the balance and found it passable. She found a holster that would fit it, attached it to a belt, and then put it around her waist.

"Come here for a second," Felis called to them.

Yuri and Kei crossed the room to stand behind her and look over her shoulder.

"They have sealed the arcology up and are jamming all communication but I'm using internal sensors which are unaffected for the most part. This is a relatively accurate representation" On the screens in front of them were cross-sections of the entire building.

"All those blue dots, they are the attackers right?" Kei asked.

"No those are my security."

"The enemy is?" Yuri asked.

"The yellow dots."

"But your forces out number them at what, about four to one?" Kei leaned over further to check out the screen.

"Yes."

"Who would attack you without enough people to take this place?" Yuri shook her head in disbelief.

"They don't want to take it." Felis tapped a claw like fingernail against the desk. "It's all a diversionary tactic. The attacking forces are playing hit and run with my security, keeping them occupied."

"So what are they doing here?" Yuri asked. "And how have they managed to get so much control?"

"They want to kill you," Kei said to Felis

"No." Felis ran a hand through her hair. "They might be happy to kill me if they could but this isn't what this is all about. I don't know how they have managed to get so much control, maybe they have a hot hacker."

"That gunship firing into the party seemed pretty serious." Yuri pulled her pistol free of the shoulder holster and slid a magazine into the grip.

"No, if someone wanted me dead for sure they'd have done something different. That was all just flash to confuse the situation. They want something else."

"Standard corporate terrorism often involves bad PR for the enemy company," Kei said slowly as if she were thinking things though. "Or maybe someone wants to steal something. What do you have in this building that might interest anyone?"

"Not much. This is more of an administration operation. I suppose they could kill all my workers and their families, but they aren't even close to the residential levels."

"What about weapons?" Yuri asked. "Could there be any weapons they want?"

"Nothing really big, maybe the nuclear bombs, or the bio-agents?"

"That's it!" Kei said.

"Come on," Felis said. "No one uses nuclear weapons any more. They're passé and messy as hell."

"Well there's a chance isn't there?" Kei slapped her hand down on the security console.

Felis turned to the computer and tapped a few keys. She studied the screen for a few seconds.

"Well there are people down in the area. I can't pin point anything though. I suppose it could be possible."

"We can't afford not to check," Yuri said as she took her pistol off safe.

"No, I guess not," Felis conceded.

* * *

They left the arms cache a few minutes later. All three women were barefoot as none of the foot-ware within the arms cache could be made to fit them very well. They moved silently through the corridors as Felis led them.

Kei had a micro missile launcher held at port. Yuri had added another pistol and an anti-mech rifle to her armaments. Felis had armed herself with a machine gun, the belt of ammunition coming from a small backpack she wore.

"Here," Felis said as she opened another of the secret doors, revealing an elevator. "This will take us to a floor three levels above where the bombs are stored."

After everyone was in the small elevator Felis closed the doors and the car began to descend. The women were quiet as the elevator took them down, their attention focused on their weapons. When the doors opened they exited, ready for a fight.

"You said there were people down here?" Kei asked.

"Yes, but I don't know exact numbers." Felis looked around, seemingly relaxed.

"Let's go find out then."

They crossed a large open, space, using the shadow of a wall for cover. Yuri wondered what it was used for, storage more than likely. The Dragon Arcology could easily become a fortress if necessary. She had no doubt there were kilometres of unused space below the building.

The three of them were almost at the end of the room when the attack came. A black battle frame stepped out from a corridor, levelling a rail cannon at them.

Yuri and Kei dove to the side, but Felis jumped between the battle frame's legs, her hard-wired combat reflexes cutting in. She fired the machine gun for almost a full three seconds, at point blank range, where the mech's legs joined the waist. There was no discernable effect.

A targeting screen swung in front of Kei's left eye as she brought her missile launcher up onto her shoulder. Information scrolled on the tiny transparent screen and a rectile outlined the battle frames chest. She squeezed the trigger and a spread of ten missiles corkscrewed out of the tubes, flashing across the distance to explode against the armour.

Yuri rolled to her feet, moving backwards at a quick walk as she brought the anti-mech rifle up to her shoulder. The back of her knees hit a low railing and suddenly she was falling backward. Oh shit, Yuri thought, as she twisted so her feet would hit first when she stopped falling.

Kei didn't see Yuri's fall. She had thrown herself flat to avoid the heavy cannon round that punched through the wall where her head had been scant moments before.

She rolled into a crouch, ready to send another spread of missiles at the thing but stopped. Felis had leapt onto the battle frame, her claws ripping at the exposed visual system, in effect blinding its pilot.

Kei watched as something flashed red in Felis' hands and the woman shoved it into a crack where the neck joined the body. Then she leapt from the battle frame. Kei threw herself flat on the floor, realizing what Felis had done.

The grenade's explosion took the battle frame's head off. Kei brought her launcher up and aimed at a crack that had been opened in the chest carapace. Only one of the ten missiles made it in, but the explosion blew the chest hatch open. The battle frame fell over backwards.

Kei and Felis approached it. They looked into the open cockpit.

"Nasty," Felis said as she looked at the shredded remains.

"Uh huh." Kei nodded, then looked around. "Where's Yuri?"

Felis looked around and shrugged her shoulders. Then they heard the shots.

* * *

The drop was only three meters and other than a few bruises to her rear and her pride Yuri was all right.

"Any landing you can walk away from," Yuri said as she stood and rubbed her seat. Then she heard the growl.

Yuri had seen quite a few war beasts but few as big as the one that stepped out of the shadows. What the hell did they use as the genetic pattern she wondered, a Kodiak bear? Then she noticed the heavy laser cannons mounted on its back. Not good, she thought.

A glow at the tips of the weapons gave her a few moments of warning, and boosted reflexes had her diving to the side. The two beams cut a trench into the floor where she had just been. It felt as if her legs were sunburned.

She noticed that the guns were in a fixed position. Too difficult to wire them into the animal's nervous system, Yuri guessed. That gave her some leeway to play with, places where the thing might not be able to shoot her. Not that it did not have other weapons as its teeth and claws were quite deadly by themselves.

With a nimbus of energy surrounded the tips of the cannons she charged the beast. At the last moment she leapt high. She could feel the burning heat on the soles of her feet. She landed in front of the war beast, surprising it. It tried to back up, as if to once again get a target lock on her. Combat programs overriding natural instincts. That was the only reason Yuri could think of that it was not tearing her apart with its claws. Well, she did not plan to give it the time to correct that,

Yuri fired twice at its armoured head, hoping that the brain was still there. Even if it was not the destruction of primary sensors should buy her a few seconds. One armour piercing sabot and one HEAP round ripped through the armour on its skull. The blast tore its head in half. Yuri closed her eyes against the warm liquid that sprayed onto her face and chest. She did not let it distract her, much.

Leaping onto its back, her toes finding holds on the slick armour plate, she shifted about to gain her balance. She pointed the weapon down, hoping she might sever the beast's spinal cord and blow out necessary systems. Also if the brain had been moved it would likely be in the chest cavity.

She fired the remaining four shots then leapt off, ejecting the spent magazine as she did. She flipped and twisted in the air, sliding another magazine into the rifle as she hit the ground behind it.

A cascade of blue sparks arced across the war beast's unmoving body. A puddle of dark liquid spread out from under it, staining the floor.

"If you're finished playing we have work to do," Kei called from the railing.

Yuri resisted the urge to make one of several rude gestures and sat down hard on the floor, letting her breathing slow.

Kei climbed over the railing then dropped to the floor. Felis simply leapt, landing silently.

"Show off," Kei muttered to the bioroid.

"Let's go," Felis said to Yuri as she gave her a hand up.

"Thanks." Yuri stood. "How many more are around here do you think?"

"I don't know." Felis looked about.

"Probably no more." Kei pushed the targeting screen back away from her eye. "If there were after all, they'd have been on us by now."

"Okay then, this way." Felis took the lead.

She led the two Trouble Consultants down into a series of corridors that twisted in a maze like fashion. Felis led confidently, turning this way and that without a thought. Finally she stopped and turned to face them. "The weapons vaults are close. We better be ready."

"How are the weapons protected?" Yuri asked. "Hard casing, or soft?"

"Anything dangerous, like the nukes and the bio-weapons, are in hard casings."

"So, no problem with the big guns," Kei said as she hefted her missile launcher.

"Let's assume they've opened the casings," Yuri said, putting her hand on the launcher and pushing it down.

"You're no fun," Kei told her as she pulled the weapons sling over her head and then put the launcher on the ground. "Guess we'll just have to be careful." She pulled her carbine from the holster at her side.

Felis looked at her machinegun, and then placed it down on the floor. "I guess I'll use these," she said, flexing her fingers, letting the claws slide free.

Yuri put the anti-mech rifle down and then drew both her pistols. "Lead the way," she said to Felis.

Farther down the corridor was a huge, armoured door. It was open. Felis said nothing but looked to Yuri and Kei, and then to the open door. It was obvious enough.

Kei went first, ducking past the door, keeping low, her weapon held ready. Yuri followed her, pistols in her hand, tracking back and forth. Felis stayed a little back as she trailed the Trouble Consultants.

They were in a long corridor, lined with more armoured doors. About twenty meters down another door was open. The sound of voices could be heard coming from the door. Back to the wall, moving slowly, Kei made her way to the door. Yuri remained where she was, kneeling, holding her pistols ready to fire.

Kei stopped near the door and listened. She heard at least three separate voices, speaking sort of a pidgin English mixed liberally with Chinese and Afrikaner. She looked to Yuri and flashed her several hand signals. Yuri nodded and made her way up the corridor until she was beside Kei. Felis followed, but stayed farther back.

The two trouble consultants exchanged a number of hand signals, and then Kei nodded. She held up three fingers. Yuri nodded.

Three seconds later the two women charged into the room.

They only had moments to take the in room and its occupants. Two men were kneeling by a coffin sized and shaped object, likely a bomb. Three others stood nearby, one of them a full-conversion cyborg.

Yuri dove into the room, hitting the ground, rolling into a crouch, and shooting the two men at the bomb, nearly a point-blank range.

Kei fired at the other three men as she slid across the floor. The rapid blasts from her laser carbine killed two easily, but the cyborg's armour coating was some proof against the coherent light. Then Felis leapt into the room, tacking the cyborg, her claws tearing at it, ripping into it, her weight holding it down. Kei moved in close, found and opening, put the barrel against the cyborg's head, and pulled the trigger.

The cyborg's body jerked as it died.

"Clear," Yuri called after she had scanned the room.

"Clear," Kei said after a second. "Well that was easy." Kei got to her feet.

"Too easy," Felis said as she got up from the cyborg. She was looking about, obviously nervous.

"Don't be paranoid," Kei said.

"She's right," Yuri called over her shoulder.

"What?" Kei asked. Both she and Felis were quickly at Yuri's side.

"They weren't trying to steal these things." She held up one of the decks that had been plugged into the bomb. "They were trying to crack the codes and arm them. They wanted this place to go up." Yuri let the deck drop. It clattered loudly on the floor.

"They didn't want to steal them, they wanted this place to go up in flames? So what are they after?" Kei demanded.

"I don't know," Yuri told her.

"The viruses." Felis snapped her fingers.

"What?" both Kei and Yuri said almost at once.

"Computer warfare."

"Oh." Yuri nodded.

"What?" Kei said at the same time.

"Core wars," Yuri told her.

"Ah."

"That's illegal by the way." Yuri looked over at Felis.

"I know, but the really big corporations play by their own rules. Sue us."

"You have the facilities set up here?"

"Where else? The main computer is deep down and well secured. It's got a hardware switch that connects it to the net, one that is kept off. It's a close system until I need it to be otherwise. No one could get near it."

"Could anyone have got near these bombs?"

"Good point," Felis conceded.

"Can we get to the computer room?"

"It will take some time, the only way is through the tunnels."

"Wait, can't we just shut down all the power?" Kei asked.

"The computers in the bowels of the arcology have a separate power system. The deterrent factor of a core full of viruses is diminished if a power outage takes away any ability to retaliate."

"I can't believe anyone is still ready to initiate a core war." Yuri shook her head.

"I don't think there is a single planet that would be willing to do so. The UG came down pretty hard on this and everyone, seeing the intelligence of it, quickly fell in line."

"And the corps?"

"We are too embroiled in all this to risk it. The rest of the galaxy could possibly survive a spread of virus. It would wipe out the business community though. Too much of our fortune is electronically represented."

"So why keep a computer full of viruses?" Kei asked her.

"Spoil sport tactics. If my fortune is to be destroyed I'm taking my competitors with me. Law of the jungle."

"Not really," Yuri told her.

"Corporate jungle."

"Okay."

"And this is the body for business these days." She held up her right hand. The ceramic finger blades slid out of the housings below her fingernails.

"Let's go and see what is happening," Kei said.

"We don't know what is waiting for us. They could have an army down here," Yuri told her.

"So?"

"That's what I thought you'd say."

Felis walked over to the heavy vault door and looked it over. She frowned. "This isn't good." She looked over her shoulder at Kei and Yuri.

"Why?" Kei asked.

"Do you think I'm stupid enough to ever leave these vault doors open? Never mind the nukes there's a couple of canisters of hyper-plague in here. These doors are always supposed to be sealed, never opened any longer than it takes to move something in and out of here. No damage to the door, so they have the codes. They've compromised all the security."

"More problems. They have full run of this entire place then, nothing slowing them down?"

"You know, I think they had some inside help," Felis said. "It is the only explanation."

"Something about this stinks," Kei said. She shook her head.

"We are in the middle of a double cross I think." Yuri went to retrieve her rifle.

"Pardon?" Felis looked up from the door.

"Would any corp want to start a core war?"

"Are you kidding? We are not that stupid. The entire set up is a deterrent remember?"

"So who would?"

"No one sane."

"Terrorists," Kei said.

"Or someone working for them. What happens if your core war computers go to work?"

"Contrary to popular belief not much. Oh, about twenty planets will undergo complete computer crash. About a hundred to a lesser extent and another two hundred will be effected at about annoyance level. Any ship infected is dead. After about a week everyone will have cut their links to ensure there systems are not affected. Complete communication blackout across the galaxy."

"Which will last about a year," Yuri said. "Any of the big terrorist organization would have a field day."

"So someone, probably an opposing corp, hires someone to steal some nukes from you, or to kill you, or something like that and they pull a double cross and go after the viruses." Kei picked up her missile launcher from where she had left it.

"You know, it might not be terrorists." Yuri shifted her gaze up to the ceiling of the tunnel.

"Who then?" Felis asked her.

"Hard liners in the UG. The types who want to bring all the mega corps to heal at their leash. This happens, even on a limited scale, the UG will come down heavily on all the mega-corps, for the greater good of course."

"Shit." Kei shook her head. "I hate politics. Straight out violence is cleaner somehow."

"Well, now that we have a possible scenario, let's go and stop it." Felis picked up her machinegun and started off.

"Yuri, wait a sec." Kei reached out, putting a hand on Yuri's shoulder. "What if the UG is behind this?"

"Tough call. Do we make sure we get some alive so that they can testify, thus weakening the trust United Galactica currently enjoys? Or do we kill them all to protect that trust?"

"No, I mean do you think they would be mad at us?"

Yuri looked at Kei for a moment then shrugged her shoulders and started after Felis.

* * *

A number of bodies lay sprawled at the entranceway to the deeper tunnel system. Most of them were wearing the uniform of Dragon Security personnel. One or two were not.

"Mostly clean kills." Yuri knelt by one of the bodies. "Throats cut, razor sharp, probably a slightly curved blade." She put her fingers on the dead woman's throat just above the wound. "This was done a while ago," she said as she dragged a finger through the clotted blood."

"How long ago?" Kei asked.

"No idea."

"Just a moment." Felis knelt down beside the body, careful to avoid most of the blood. She went through the pouches on the woman's web belt and then removed a slim data-reader with a cable attached to it. She plugged the free end into the woman's datajack.

"Okay, here we go," Felis said as information began to scroll across the small screen. "Heart stopped at 17:39. There was a pretty major adrenaline surge twenty seconds before hand, and other stuff, blood pressure drops significantly about ten seconds before death."

"17:39?" Yuri looked over Felis' shoulder to read the information. "That's about the time we left the hotel." She looked over at Kei.

"Sounds about right. So there were people down here before the main attack."

"Definitely an inside job." Felis let the data reader drop. "Nice diversionary tactics. They almost worked."

"It's 18:23, this planet's time. They've had almost an hour to work. Do we still have time to stop them?"

"Assuming that they were after the core wars stuff, maybe. The security on those systems will take some time to crack."

"Even if they have a person on the inside?"

"Only if they have someone on the inside."

"How far?"

"About ten minutes."

"We better go then," Kei said, starting down the long slope.

Felis and Yuri followed.

* * *

The long corridor had been sloping down for almost a kilometre. Felis had told them it was a natural cave system, enlarged and reinforced. The dim, green light from the few light-strips gave everything a strange look.

Kei was beginning to feel nervous. She almost wanted to scream, just to relieve the tension. It seemed to be taking forever. When the attack finally came it was almost a relief.

Six of them, dressed in dark grey, came out of the shadows, almost as if they had been shadows themselves. They were armed with blades for silent killing. The three women had only a moment of warning.

Kei swung her missile launcher around, taking one of them in the face with the heavy stock. She used the momentum the move had given her to drive her elbow into the stomach of another. She snapped her hand up, fist impacting against his throat.

Yuri pulled a knife from the sheath at her belt using the rifle's barrel to clumsily block a slash. She lashed out with her blade, cutting her attacker across the chest from his floating ribs up towards his shoulder. At the last instant she angled the blade up to cut his throat. As he fell forward she swung the rifle out, holding it only by the pistol grip, and squeezed the trigger. The weapon thundered in the close confines, the sabot ripping through the head of a woman with a machete.

Felis snapped a kick over a knife thrust, the heel of her boot impacting with her attacker's face. She was rewarded with the satisfying crunch of bone. She literally tore the lungs out of the next, her claws cutting through flack jacket and rib cage into chest cavity.

It was almost quiet; the echo from Yuri's rifle shot still rang out in the tunnel. The three women relaxed slightly, looking at the bodies on the floor. Yuri turned slightly, hearing something behind her. She felt something graze her right shoulder and was dropping to a crouch even as she finished turning.

Felis was already sprinting at the attackers who had sought to take them from behind. A laser burnt hair and skin away from her scalp. She looked as if she hardly felt it.

Then with a leap she was among them, too close for them to use the rifles they had been carrying. Blood started to fly.

"Berserker," Yuri said as she watched. She placed her left hand on her right shoulder. A thin trickle of blood was running from the wound.

"We got more problems," Kei said softly.

Yuri turned and saw what Kei had meant.

Two combat androids were walking towards them. They moved with an odd, inhuman grace, every movement too smooth, somehow reptilian in appearance. Their eyes glowed a soft red, and small, red dots appeared on Kei and Yuri's clothing as the androids activated laser-targeting systems.

The androids broke into a sprint, low to the ground as to present less of a target silhouette, their limbs folding in way impossible for an unmodified human. Both trouble consultants knew what to expect, the longer a fight went on the more effective the androids would become. It was the nature of their combat AIs. In the opening moves of battle, however, it was likely that their attacks would be somewhat predictable.

When both androids leapt, almost in unison, Kei dove to the ground under the one that had chosen her. She saw a flash of light as its built in laser fired. The beam burnt into the ground close to her head.

Yuri slid her right leg out in front of her while bending her left and arching her back to lower herself. She felt the android's hand brush past her head, tearing out hair as it passed. She dropped her hand so the barrel of her anti-mech rifle pointed up. The end was only millimetres from the android's chest when she fired twice.

Some of the sabot's kinetic energy was transferred into the android's body and it bounced off the ceiling of the tunnel further behind Yuri. It flipped over, trying to land on its feet but its balance was thrown off and it landed on its back. The body convulsed as it tried to bypass the damaged components, it's feet drumming on the ground.

Yuri felt the blast wave of Kei's missile launcher wash over her but she ignored it as she emptied the clip of her rifle into the android. It exploded after the fourth shot, most of the force going upward but some of washed back at Yuri, carrying fine, stinging particles.

Kei had rolled to her feet and twisted around facing the android as it landed some distance farther down the corridor. The targeting screen swung over her eye and Kei sent a spread of missiles at the android even as it was readying to leap at her.

The android altered the trajectory of its leap, with just a twist of steel toes. Doing so kept it out of the first spread of missiles. It hit the wall and sprung off, just ahead of Kei's second spread. Still in the air, unable to alter its path significantly, most of the third spread hit it dead on, obscuring the android in flame.

It hit the ground a meter away from Kei; its legs had been blown from the torso, only the broken skeletal rods left, projecting from its waist. It pulled its self towards Kei with its arms.

This thing is a real bad ass, Kei thought, springing back and lining up the finishing shot. In the corner of the targeting screen a red dot was flashing on and off. Kei had no idea what it meant until she pulled the trigger and the weapon failed to fire.

"Bitch," Kei said, as she let the empty missile launcher fall and drew her laser carbine. The android's built in laser burnt into her thigh. Kei ignored the pain it and fired at the laser aperture on the android's head, before the before the android could do more damage to her.

"Just die!" Kei yelled as she pumped several shots into the android's back. It finally stopped moving, its torso a smoking ruin of biomechanical parts.

"You all right?" Yuri asked her.

"Yeah," Kei said looking down at her leg. At least with a laser there was little danger of bleeding to death and the wound did not look too bad.

Smoke from the missiles and burning androids filled the corridor. Yuri could not see that far down it and she had no idea how Felis fared. She ejected the empty magazine from the rifle and slid a fresh one into her weapon.

"I wonder if Felis is all right?" Yuri blinked her eyes against the acrid, stinging smoke.

"Come on." Kei headed into the smoke. "Let's find out."

Somewhere in the distance ventilation fans were working hard and had started drawing the smoke away. As the smoke cleared they saw Felis standing among a pile of bodies. The dim light was reflected back from her eyes, her hair was slick with blood, and there was more blood on her. She did not look human.

She began to growl and then suddenly stopped. Looking down at the mess Felis began to tremble. It appeared as if she might be sick.

"Are you all right?" Yuri asked as she laid her hands on Felis' back, cringing slightly at the blood.

"Yeah, I'm just having trouble dealing with being a blood thirsty berserker." She wiped the blood from her face. "I didn't even think of using my weapon." She said looking down at the machinegun lying on the floor.

"Come on." Yuri put an arm around her shoulders. "Let's clean up a little."

"Thank you," Felis said, allowing herself to be led.

Once they had taken care of their wounds and cleaned up a little Felis seemed to be feeling better and once more led them through the tunnels. They easily avoided two groups of people, taking odd cross paths; Felis knew the tunnels well. They finally reached the destination that Felis was set on and she ushered Kei and Yuri into a small room before following them in.

"Where are we?" Kei asked.

"Just a monitoring room." Felis let the door close and then walked over to a control board. She began to enter codes.

"What's up?"

"Just a moment." Felis finished entering the commands. "Damn, they have the system almost completely locked down. They've opened up the lines of communication between the core-wars systems and the outside world. I can't shut them down." She shook her head. "I can't do much from here. Might as well see who the major players are."

"Pardon?" Yuri said.

"I think I can hook us into the security cameras, if I remember the right codes." She took an interface cord from a small drawer and plugged herself into the system. She called up several menus on the screen, looked them over, and then chose one. "This should do it." The screen lit up, it was an overhead view of a room.

"This is where the core-war systems are housed," Felis said.

"Look at the size of the black cymech." Kei shook her head.

"There's two, the second one is small, scouting model I think." Yuri looked down at her anti-mech rifle.

"I'd recognize that receding hair line anywhere, Vernen you son of a bastard. I'll kill you." Felis voice was full of venom.

"Who?" Kei asked.

"One of my employees," Felis hissed. "Piece of excrement that he is."

"The inside man?"

"I took him right out of university, groomed him, taught him everything I knew, set him up to take over for me. He was like the son I never wanted but came to appreciate."

"Maybe when he realized that you were not about to die peacefully he decided that waiting for you to kick off was a loosing proposition," Kei told her.

"Good point. It was foolish of me not to consider that possibility. I'm going to have think about how to deal with this in the future. I wonder if AI systems would be the way to go. Nice, loyal, and you can erase them without having to deal with murder charges."

"I wouldn't have thought the possibility of a murder charges would bother you," Kei said archly.

"I avoid them wherever I can."

"Well that's all well and good but we have nine hostiles in that room in total, two of them are cymechs, and we have to hit them soon." Yuri leaned over Felis' shoulder and tapped a few keys. The camera zoomed in on a computer screen. "I think their hacker is close to breaking through."

"Okay Yuri," Kei walked over to her side, "any ideas?"

"Can you give me a view of what's outside that room?"

"Just a moment, there should be a camera. Ah, here it is." The image on the screen was replaced by the image of a doorway. A single woman stood outside of it.

"So ten hostiles in total," Kei said. "In the immediate area of the room. Others likely about."

"Got an idea. You have any grenades left Felis?" Yuri asked.

"Three." Felis pulled them from her pockets and placed them on the desktop.

"Let's hope that will be enough." Yuri placed her rifle and magazine satchel on the floor. "Hold the fort Kei, I'll be back in a minute or two." Yuri drew both her pistols and went to the door.

"What are you up to Yuri?" Kei asked.

"I have a plan." Yuri told her as she opened the door and stepped out into the corridor.

"That's what I was afraid of," Kei said as Yuri left.

Yuri ran down the hallway, trying to remember the pattern of the corridors. There was a group of guards close by; she remembered they had almost run into them. There were only about four of them.

The corridor was curved, Yuri was silent, her bare feet made almost no sound against the polished, stone floor. The guards did not know she was there until she was almost on top of them.

There were five all together, their backs to her. I miscounted, Yuri thought as she began to fire. The two electro-mags were easy to aim and they had little recoil. She took two down before they even started to turn, head shots. Two more went down before the last one began to fire. She dodged to the side, hitting the wall, and returned fire.

The man dove to the ground, avoiding Yuri's fire. His rifle got caught under him, tangled up in his webbing so he could not get bring it to aim. Instead he pulled a throwing knife from his webbing and threw it. The entire motion was so fast and so unexpected that Yuri barely had time to jerk her head to the side to as to avoid the blade. As it was she felt the knife nick her hear.

Before he could get at his second knife Yuri had put three rounds into his head.

Yuri looked about, counting slowly to ten, waiting for another attack. It remained quiet. She holstered her pistols and then turned her attention to stripping the bodies.

* * *

Kei looked up when there was a knock at the door.

"Yuri?" Felis asked.

"Who else would knock?" Kei went and opened the door.

Yuri came in, her hands full of clothing and weapons.

"Shopping?" Kei stood aside.

"You know how I am when there's a sale." Yuri put her burden on the floor. "Are they still working at it?"

"They haven't cracked all the codes yet, but very soon."

"Then we don't have much time." Yuri began to strip.

"Do you think this will work?" Kei bent down to examine the clothing, looking for bloodstains.

"It should. All I need is a few seconds, just enough times to drop the grenades. They should take out all of the soft targets. Hope none of them are cyborgs."

"Felis and I come in guns blazing?"

"That's what I was planning."

"Should work, assuming no surprises."

"Assuming no surprises." Kei shook her head.

"Would have preferred being prepared but what was that they always said to us on Shimogu?" Yuri unsnapped her garter clasps.

"'I swear, if I could get away with it, I'd kill you both and dance on your graves'?"

"Adapt," she picked up one of her pistols and ejected the magazine "improvise," she took a full magazine from the shoulder holster, "and overcome." Yuri slapped it into the pistol.

"You sure they said that to us?"

"I don't remember, maybe I heard it in a vid or something."

Yuri finished dressing in the clothes she had acquired.

"What if they realize that you are not one of them?" Felis asked Yuri.

"They'll be fooled long enough." Yuri pulled the pants on.

"And if they're not?"

"Then they will shoot me many times seriously compromising the structural integrity of my circulatory and skeletal system." Yuri slipped into the shirt.

"That does not sound like much of a fall back plan."

"It's why we are paid so well," Kei told her. "And we get the best toys."

"Considering out time frame we don't have much time for a better plan," Yuri told her as she tucked the tails of the shirt into the waistband of her pants. "How do I look?"

"Cover girl for 'Star Soldier'."

"None of the Will have to do." Yuri bent down to retrieve the beret and pull it on. She walked over to the desk and grabbed the three grenades.

"How do we take out the guard at the door?" Felis asked.

"That shouldn't be a problem," Kei told her.

"Come in fast after the grenades go off," Yuri told Kei. "The element of surprise will only last for so long." Yuri removed the safeties from the grenades and set them for impact, but left them unarmed. She used the clips on them to hook them into her pockets.

"I understand the plan." Kei bent down and picked up the anti-mech rifle.

"Is this beginning to seem like less and less of a good plan to you?" Yuri pushed the pistol into the back of her waistband.

"It didn't seem like a good plan to start with."

"Thanks Kei." Yuri bent down and picked up the laser rifle she had brought with the clothes.

"What are friends for? Shall we go?"

"Let's." Yuri pushed open the door and stepped out into the hall, Felis slung her machinegun and followed them.

* * *

Kei lowered the body of the guard to the ground, pulling her away from the door so her blood would not fall on the floor near it. Felis moved close to help her, taking the body's entire weight with one hand.

"I'm going in," Yuri told them, pulling the beret low on her head, hoping it would help hide her features a little. "Wish me luck." She armed the grenades.

"Luck," Kei said.

Yuri nodded.

The door slid open as soon as Yuri touched the plate. All eyes in the room turned towards her but none were alarmed, they saw the clothes she was wearing, it was almost a uniform. Look like you belong, Yuri thought.

"We're being over run," she said quickly, hoping the news would distract attention away from her voice.

"I told you I heard gun shots," a little, squirrelly man, their hacker, said.

"You're always hearing gun shots," the big cymech said, its voice deep, almost echoing. "No matter. We're done here are we not?"

"Almost," the squirrelly hacker told the cymech.

"How are we supposed to get out of here?" Vernen asked.

"You? Likely on a gurney, covered with a sheet."

"What?"

"Time for you to..." the cymech said as it lifted its arm to point the cannon within at Vernen.

Yuri decided that it was a good time to act and took them all by surprise, spraying the room with laser fire, being certain to hit the hacker. She heard a boom, but assumed that it was Vernen meeting his end. She tossed the rifle aside, for the moment unconcerned with the question as to who was living and who was dead, and pulled the three grenades from the pants' pockets. Diving behind a piece of heavily shielded equipment she tossed the grenades out into the room.

The grenades went off. She could feel the force of the explosion through the floor and the computer equipment at her back. There were some screams, but the were cut short quickly enough.

Yuri shifted about and peeked over her cover, pistols held out in front of her. Someone's head popped above another piece of equipment. Yuri fired as soon as she saw the movement. Then the smaller of the two cymechs stepped out from behind a tall system rack. Yuri dodged down a moment before a hail of minigun fire chewed up the equipment where her head had just been.

From her place on the floor Yuri saw Kei and Felis come through the door. She heard the buzz of Felis' machine gun, the thump of the anti-mech rifle. The mech stopped firing.

Yuri looked over the computers again. There were two new bodies sprawled on the floor and the cymech was lying on its back. Then she saw the bigger one as it opened up on Kei and Felis. There was not much more cover in the room, the two women dove to opposite sides, buying themselves a few seconds as the cymech tried to decide which to shoot first.

Kei rolled to her knees and fired three shots at it with little discernable effect. She almost had her head burnt off by the mech's plasma cannon. She almost lost the rifle as she dove to the side, ejecting the magazine.

Yuri watched as it fired on her friend, the plasma cannon burning into the floor where Kei had just been. The cymech was ignoring her, likely because it did not consider her pistols a threat.

She reached into her jacket, taking the only weapon she had brought with her that night. She clipped the control wristband on and pulled the bloody card from the dura-ceramic case.

Kicking off the boots so they would not get in her way, she leapt to her feet. With a quick prayer to any power that might be watching over her she threw the card.

The card punched a hole into the mech's chest and then out it's back. Kei used the moment of distraction to put a sabot into its head.

Yuri caught the bloody card and threw it again on the run. The card hit lower this time.

Kei had slapped a new magazine into the weapon, aimed for the hole Yuri's first throw had made, and began firing. The first two missed the rents in the armour but knocked it back, spoiling its attempt to return fire. The third one was dead on.

The cymech stumbled back, the round tearing through its softer interior. It fell back as Kei managed to get the fourth shot into the second rent that Yuri had put into it.

It hit the ground hard, sparks playing over its body.

"Think it's dead," Kei called to Yuri who was crouching on the far side of the room.

"I hope so," Yuri called back. She had lost her bloody card in the second throw; it was stuck in the cymech.

"One way to find out," Felis said as she snatched the rifle from Kei's hands and ejected the almost empty magazine. "Give me a fresh one."

"Here," Kei held up one of the magazine.

Felis slapped the magazine home. Standing less then a meter away she shoved the barrel into one of the rents and fired three times. She walked over to the second cymech and repeated the procedure.

"Dead." She let the rifle drop. "God I liked that."

Yuri had come close to Felis as she made her way towards the hacker's body. Felis reached out and grabbed her, pulled her close, and kissed her full on the lips. Yuri could taste the coppery tang of the dried blood on Felis face.

For a moment Yuri just stood there as Felis pulled their bodies close together, too shocked to do anything but stand there. Then the surprise was over and she easily slipped from Felis' grasp, pushing the woman away from her. She might have drawn her pistol, but for the thought that such an action was a little too much.

"Don't ever do that again," she said calmly enough. "At least not without asking first," she added, not wanting to sound prudish.

"I make no promises," Felis said, smiling. "You are so beautiful, and right now I'm so damn excited."

"Yeah, yeah," Kei said, sounding bored. "Yuri's cute and Felis is in heat. All well and good, but what about the computer? You know, the one that might cause the end of civilization and all that."

"Let's see," Yuri said as she turned her back on Felis. She pulled the dead body of the hacker from the system and examined what she had to work with. "What a mess, grenades and electronics do not mix. Good thing his body shielded some of it." She placed her hand on a touch pad and began to call up information.

"How does it look?" Kei asked as she moved beside Yuri.

"Not good I think."

"Let me see." Felis walked over to Yuri's side.

Yuri stepped back a little, in case Felis decided to get touchy-feely again. "What do you think?"

"Not good." She began to enter codes. "Looks like they locked me out, and wiped the abort codes. It will take at least ten minutes to reinstate it all, probably twenty."

"Do we have the time?" Kei asked.

"No."

"Damn. Can you take care of this?"

"Me?" Felis looked surprised. "I hire people to do this."

"Great, looks like it is up to me then." Yuri picked up the dead hacker's deck and looked at it. "Electronics and grenades." She shook her head and began to rip it apart.

"What are you up to Yuri?"

"I'm going in." She pulled out the program carrier from the deck and looked it over.

"Naked?"

"I have to, we don't have time to go search for a deck."

"You can't be serious," Felis said.

"Yes I can." She pulled the interface cable from the hacker's head and hooked the program carrier to it.

"Going in without a buffer between you and the computer is a bad idea even at the best of times. Right now that monster is a mass of viruses and they all want to get out. You will die."

"That's a possibility. Give me all your pass codes."

"Damn." Felis looked around, searching through some drawers until she found a datasoft plug. She pushed it into her datajack, closed her eyes for a moment then pulled it free. "Here you go." She walked over to Yuri and placed the plug in Yuri's hand. "Take care."

"See you soon," Yuri said to Kei, ignoring Felis, as she pushed the plug into the program carrier. She took a deep breath and then pushed the plug into her data jack.

Sliding into a computer system through a deck with some of the best software behind her was one thing. Going in naked was another. Yuri had never done it before, not for real, not with the nastiest viruses a megacorp could design waiting for her. It was the sort of thing that separated the merely talented from the legendary. Which would not have been a problem if she were certain she was among the legendary.

Putting such concerns aside she quickly catalogued the programs she had with her. Decryption programs, a few attacks and a lot of defence programs. That was fortunate because she found herself on the defensive the moment she was fully in.

It was like standing in an ocean as the surf pounded over her, trying to drive her under. She wrapped the defensive programs about herself like a blanket, trying to keep the smart viruses from corrupting her wetware. She was only partially successful.

That was a first for her, having her wetware directly affected. She isolated the damaged systems and shut them down, hoping that she had stopped the spread.

Yuri tried to make sense of the maelstrom presented to her. There were no single defined programs within the storm. The few attack programs she had would be of little use. She could not fight it.

She moved through directories, looking for the communication lines. She could not shut them down. There was no way she could stop it. She split off several ghosts and sent them along the lines to find out how far the virus had spread. Not much time left for anything fancy.

The pass codes Felis had given her let her into the deepest levels of the arcology's computer system. The viruses had not spread that far yet, but Yuri knew it would not take long. They were cutting through the antibiotic programs like they were not there.

Far from the maelstrom things began to make sense once again. Yuri's representation hung in an open area, all around her where menu boards like billboards hanging in space. She noticed a few were beginning to flicker, the information on them changing rapidly as the subsystems they represented were corrupted.

There has to be something in here, Yuri thought, looking around herself. There, she thought, the board coming to her, or she going to it; it was all a matter of perspective.

Satellites? Yuri looked through it, using the pass codes. Why so much defence around communication satellites? Attack satellites? Oh Felis you are evil. She went in.

Dragon Industries had almost a hundred communication, weather, surveillance and navigation satellites in orbit around the planet. Eighteen of them were officially communications satellites but contained enough weaponry to take out a corvette.

Yuri checked on her ghosts; the viruses had spread almost across the planet, they had corrupted more of her wetware as well. Yuri took the necessary measures and turned her attention back to the satellites.

I'm going to get in so much trouble, Yuri thought as she inputted her commands. She had little choice though.

High in the space above camouflaging panels blew off the satellites, revealing weapon bays. Within the various bays were plasma and laser cannons, as well as missiles. Small fusion generators came on line in each of the satellites.

Yuri went after the all the other satellites first, destroying them all if a few seconds. Three separate satellites trained their fire on the big FTL relay that was in high, high orbit. Once that was gone Alantis was cut off.

Yuri was unwilling to destroy the ships in orbit so she fired at the ground relay stations instead. All across the planet any satellite dish capable of transmitting came under fire. As Yuri watched she could not help feel a slight thrill. The destruction was incredible.

She took out the uplink station on the arcology last after setting the satellites to destroy each other. It was rather disturbing, being cut off like that.

Back in reality Yuri clawed at the interface cable behind her ear and pulled the cable out. She stumbled away from the computer, her sense of balance off. Her eyes would not focus, her heart was beating so hard and fast she could feel it in her ears. Lethal biofeedback, Yuri thought, feeling a little detached. Not a fun thing.

"Yuri." Kei grabbed her before she could fall.

"I'm alright, I just need a few seconds," Yuri told her.

"Yuri what did you do?" Felis asked as she worked with the computers. "Everything is still corrupt, I can't backtrack your actions."

"Cut everything," Yuri said. Blood was running from her nose. Here eyes were bloodshot. "I used your illegal, war satellites."

"You cut everything? Unbelievable." Felis laughed. "Brilliant." She turned towards Yuri and smiled. "Wonderfully, beautifully brilliant."

"What did you cut?" Kei asked Yuri.

"Communication lines. To all outside observation, Alantis has just ceased to exist."

"And she fired on the planet to do it," Felis told her.

"You know this goes beyond your normal destruction. This wasn't accidental," Kei told her, smiling.

"I know." Yuri wiped the blood from her nose. Her heartbeat was beginning to slow.

"You loved it didn't you?"

"Of course I did, but that's off the record," Yuri told her.

"Unbelievable." Felis shook her head. "I wish I had communications. I could make money from this if I could only get in touch with the outside galaxy. Everyone will be trying to sell anything related to Alantis. This could destroy the planet's economy, majorly screw up those of its close trading partners."

"Isn't that a bad thing?" Kei asked.

"In theory I suppose."

"You are sort of sick."

"But I'm rich." Felis looked her machinegun over. "You'd be surprised out how often they go together. Now shall we go?"

"You know, you sort of are really unlikeable," Yuri said. With Kei's help she managed to stand.

"I know." Felis shrugged her shoulders then walked to the door. She looked back and Yuri and smiled again. "I do have my good points though." She laughed and left the room.

"You alright?" Kei asked Yuri as she helped her towards the exit.

"I should be." A sharp pain formed behind her eyes. "That's probably not good," Yuri said softly.

* * *

Kei lay on the Lovely Angel's port wing, almost asleep, but not quite. Mughi's hot weight was draped across her lower legs. It was not too comfortable but she was feeling too lazy to make him move.

She stared up at the air traffic over Terhune, but did not really see it. One could only identify ships and pick out the interesting modifications for so long before terminal boredom set in. She really hated the city.

It had been over a week since they had left Alantis. No one on the planet had been particularly sorry to see them go. Kei had never really appreciated the importance of computers to a planet's survival until she had seen the effect of a planet wide computer crash. It had been scary.

It was fortunate Alantis was such a small world, and that its Prime Minister had had, for some reason, quite the sizeable disaster relief set up on planet. Had Alantis been a heavily populated planet the results would have been much more dire.

Of course the effects could not have just been localized to one planet; that would have been too easy.

After Alantis had seemingly disappeared there had been panic on a number of other worlds.

Eight wars were still going on.

Two planetary economies had crashed and Alantis might make that three. The number of smaller financial-disasters were still not known.

Two planets had withdrawn from the United Galactica, one had since come back. Two unaffiliated worlds had also requested membership for some odd reason. Kei had not used that fact in an attempt to put a positive spin on things.

Four of the over thirty worlds that had cut their communication links to the outside galaxy still had not put them up again. That was threatening to cause more problems in itself.

It was a nice example of Chaos theory. And it would probably get worse.

No one had been very happy about it.

The Central Computer had cleared them however. She suspected even less people were happy about that.

They had not even been able to bring Dragon Industries in on charges of computer warfare. Felis had denied everything, claimed that a group of terrorists had used her communication system to launch the attack.

The few mercenaries, as they turned out to be, left alive provided little real information. The only people who likely knew all the facts had been in that computer room. Kei had not really been bothered by Felis' excessive spraying of the room at the time; but it had ensured there were no witnesses.

In the end it was their word against hers. Some legal type from UG corporate crimes division had told her that he would have put any other trouble consultants on the stand to testify but them.

What a bastard, Kei thought, smiling as she remembered hitting him.

Then there was Yuri. She had spent most of the trip to Shimogu curled up on her bunk, whimpering. Wetware, viral corruption was not a good thing, as Kei had learned.

The migraines had made Yuri wish, loudly, that she were dead. Not a single painkiller in the Lovely Angel's infirmary had been able to touch the pain. Then there had been general failures of wetware and biological functions, which had been messy. Of course that was nothing to when Yuri's heart had just stopped shortly before the Lovely Angel landed.

The medicos had rushed Yuri off the ship so fast that Kei had not even realized they had come aboard. Of course she had been in a shouting match with air control over her landing. They had almost pulled her papers over it.

Kei had asked a lot of questions and got long drawn out answers about what had happened to Yuri. She barely understood a quarter of what they said. The good thing was that they looked like they only understood half of it themselves.

Cutting had been the only option, pulling the wetware out, using cloned tissue to repair the damage and then installing new wetware. The techs had gone on about how the new stuff was cutting edge. Kei had been more concerned that Yuri was going to be her old self. She had almost fed one of the techs her teeth when the woman seemed to refuse to see why that was important.

Yuri was fine, so Kei had been told. She was apparently in the process of being debriefed. Kei knew that was polite speak for "being chewed out".

* * *

Yuri sat in the chair, barely listening to the man in front of her as he told her everything that had happened after she had taken Alantis out of the loop. She nodded every now and then, made the appropriate, respectful noises when called for.

She had heard it before. The damage she had done, the likely effects over the next few years, the complaints from all over the galaxy. She did not care though. What none of them mentioned was that she had had no other choice and had done the only thing she could.

She had almost died.

Not a quick and clean death, but a painful one caused by her brain shutting down as infected wetware played hell with her nervous system. And the truly bad thing was that she had gone through all the pain and had not died. That raised the possibility of having to go through it again at some point.

It was really annoying.

The med techs had come close to just brain taping her and cloning her body. The damage to her brain and nervous system had been pretty bad, as she understood it.

But she was fine now, so she had been told. With a head full of the finest wetware 3WA had developed and an internal computer running along her spine in case she ever found herself needing to go virus hunting again and was without a proper deck. She had shut the thing down the moment it had come on line. It was incredibly creepy.

"Are you listening to me Trouble Consultant?" the woman, whose name Yuri could not remember, asked.

"Not really." Yuri got to her feet. "The Central Computer has cleared me hasn't it?"

"Well, yes, but that's not the point," she sputtered.

"I respectfully disagree. I think it is the point. May I go now?"

"Go," the woman said between clenched teeth.

"Thank you." Yuri turned and left.

Getting out of the administration complex took a little time, she got lost once. Finally she caught a cab to the landing field. It dropped her off just outside of the gates.

Yuri walked across the field of dura-ceramic to where the Angel sat, threading her way between the other ships.

She saw a black head rise above the wing and then Mughi was leaping from the wing, running toward her. The big cat twined itself around her legs once, almost knocking her over.

"So you finally stopped laying about," Kei yelled from the wing.

"Well, I needed a little time away from you," Yuri said loudly as she continued walking towards the Angel, Mughi pacing her.

"I knew you did it on purpose, just couldn't wait to get your head wrapped around the new wetware." Kei slid from the wing and dropped gracefully to the ground. "So, you alright?" There was a hint of concern in her voice.

"Never been better. Clean bill of health all around."

"Let's get the hell out of here then." Kei walked to the Angel's entry hatch.

"I'm for that," Yuri said as she followed.


End file.
